GENESIS OF PUBLIC TRANSPORT IN KIEV

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the early history of public transport in Kiev. Special attention is paid to the circumstances characteristic of this city, which (i) dictated the specific shape of the future transportation network, and (ii) caused major delays with finding a contractor. The main transport corridor in Kiev at the time was the “north-south” axis, approximately parallel to the Dnieper river. First, we describe the early, rather sporadic attempts at setting up passenger transport routes, mostly (but not only) along that corridor. Then we show how, during almost two decades, projects of a horse-tram network submitted by different entrepreneurs fizzled, for the most part because of a specific reason: The city had put forward a condition that any contractor who wished to build a horse-tram line along Kreschatik, the main street, had to also build the main sewer line under that street. The situation only got resolved after the city lifted that condition and made an independent arrangement for the sewer line construction. Finally, we describe the successful project, by engineer Amand Struve, who initially built a number of horse-tram lines but quickly moved on to electrify them; the electric tram in Kiev came to be the first of its kind in the Russian Empire.